Back to identifiers

After my last identifier post, Richard and I got into a long off-list 
conversation that should have taken place on-list. I'll try to bring it 
back.

Look at:

<http://bowker.com/identifiers/isbn/9780553479430>
     a skos:Concept;
     schema:name "9780553479430";
     schema:inScheme <http://bowker.com/concept-scheme/isbn> ;
     schema:focus <http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/38264520>.

<http://bowker.com/concept-scheme/isbn>
     a skos:ConceptScheme;
     schema:name "ISBN Identifier Scheme".


which is on our identifier page. http://tinyurl.com/balwg8h

It was my impression that the identifier property was needed only for 
those identifiers that do not have a URI. Ones I can think of include 
the government document numbers issued by the US gov't printing agency, 
and the music publisher numbers.

Government doc no.

     Y 4.B 22/3:S.HRG.104-869/V.1-

Publisher no.

     M 640 Victor (set : manual sequence)
     15827 Victor

Essentially, we need to be able to carry the context/authority along 
with the identifier so you know whose identifier it is.

In the above example from the page, the ISBN, we have learned, *does* 
have a URI and therefore should not need any further information. 
However, Richard has stated to me that:

*****

"The ISBN is a string of characters (in ISBN scheme that Bowkers administer)
that they have issued to represent the book - it is not the book.

The WorldCat URI identifies the Book.

Follow this bit of logic, using your assumption.

<http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/38264520>
  a schema:Book;
  schema:isbn <http://bowker.com/isbn/9780553479430>;
  schema:name "War and Peace".

<http://bowker.com/isbn/9780553479430>
   a schema:Book;
   schema:name "War and Peace";
   owl:sameAs <http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/38264520>.

This in effect is saying that the isbn is a Book.  You end up in a circular
loop.

The WorldCat URI is just that, a URI that represents the book.
An ISBN URI is a URI that represents the string of characters that have 
been assigned.

*****

So the difference in viewpoint here is that I consider the ISBN (whether 
as a URI or not) to be an identifier for the book. Richard's view is 
that the ISBN URI is an identifier for the ISBN. Thus the example on the 
page.

I think that much of the confusion here has to do with equating SKOS and 
URIs for strings. However, I do not see identifiers as skos:concept. 
They are identifiers. Thus an ISBN is a Book, and for use an ISBN in URI 
form is as much a Book as a Worldcat ID or an LCCN or a National 
Bibliographic Number.

That's it in a nutshell.

kc

-- 
Karen Coyle
kcoyle@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net
ph: 1-510-540-7596
m: 1-510-435-8234
skype: kcoylenet

Received on Friday, 18 January 2013 15:20:26 UTC